Essays

essays

A most rebellious territory

Xinjiang’s Uighurs live under the heaviest surveillance in the world, victims of a long battle between China and Russia to settle their Central Asian borderlands.

Michael Sheridan April 5, 2023

essays

How 1970s California created the modern world

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or ..

Francis J. Gavin April 3, 2023

essays

Plautus punching up: a different class of comedy

Little-studied today, the Roman playwright Plautus has much to teach us about both Ancient history and modern humour.

Orlando Gibbs March 30, 2023

essays

Can Europe come to NATO’s defence?

Despite the Russian threat, few European states are committed to their own defence. NATO solidarity is transatlantic only – if it exists at all

Janne Haaland Matláry March 29, 2023

essays

Liberty under attack from enemies within

Just as generations did before us, we are learning that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable.

Juliet Samuel March 24, 2023

essays

US aiding Ukraine won’t deter China

The US should engage in a more intense and uncompromising dialogue about the division of labour and the hard trade-offs between allies.

Patrick Porter March 24, 2023

essays

Liberty and the myth of Venice

Liberty was central to the idea of Venice, but was remarkably fragile. The republic had to guard it fiercely and expound it as a tangible way of living for flawed human beings.

Alexander Lee March 14, 2023

essays

The White Revolutionaries

Henry Kissinger saw Otto von Bismarck’s traits in twentieth-century figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Charles De Gaulle — each their own form of ‘white revolutionary'.

Angus Reilly March 9, 2023

essays

Is farming the root of civilisation?

Humans discovered agriculture far earlier than previously thought; so why did they give up on it?

Graeme Barker March 6, 2023